


I Look At Her, And I See Myself

by Helthehatter



Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Blue - Freeform, Bonding, Claire Dearing - Freeform, Dinosaurs, Friendship, How to Train Your Dragon AU, Ian Malcolm - Freeform, Indoraptor - Freeform, Jurassic Park - Freeform, Jurassic World, Owen Grady - Freeform, Owen's POV, Post-Apocalypse, T-Rex - Freeform, The dinosaurs are really intelligent, alan grant - Freeform, blue's pov, don't read for anything realistic, dr. zia rodriguez - Freeform, ellie sattler - Freeform, franklin webb - Freeform, indominius rex, john hammond - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-07 08:16:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16404689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helthehatter/pseuds/Helthehatter
Summary: Life finds a way, as Ian Malcolm said.Life found a way…to bring dinosaurs back to life.Life found a way…to have that gift of life fall into so, so many wrong hands.Life found a way…to turn the creatures into weapons.And life found a way…to have mankind losing any and all control.





	1. Prologue

A sense of relief and triumph warmed his chest as blood dripped from his teeth. The human lay between his claws, still smelling like the scent the white coats had choked him with as electricity burned through his veins.  

Then his captors had let him loose into a forest where he caught that awful scent almost immediately. He followed it to a building that was pitifully guarded, his skin already decorated with blood before he found the human that carried the scent, his room was bathed in it and he could feel the phantom pain in his muscles.

And then he all too happily put his teeth in the human’s neck.

He fell too easily, just like the humans that guarded his home, and also like them he tasted __incredible__. Unlike the livestock that were his usual meals, human flesh came with a sense of superiority. They were smarter than cows and pigs, not as smart as himself, but smart enough.

He heard the floor creak and his head whipped around, eyes toward the dark hallway. There were more humans in this house. But they, of course, were no threat, and he could hear the clicking of his captors. Outside, ready to take him back to his cage.

He reluctantly left the prey to its hiding place.

Outside it was dark and quiet, the only living thing were the humans waiting for him. One stood in front of the others, arms behind his back and a smug smirk on his arrogant and ugly face. His arrogant, ugly, and __soft__ face.

Between him were two humans holding the strange stick like creatures, he’s seen those kill one of his fellow prisoners, and right now they were pointed at him, ready to do the same. And behind them was his cage, that awful, dark, cramped cage that he hated almost as much as he hated the humans.

He looked back at the lead human as he held up a clicker, ordering him through it to get into the cage. His rearing told him to obey, these were his parents as much as his captors.

But they underestimated two things: instinct and realization.

Instinct that he was a hunter, he wasn’t suppose to be fed tied up animals, he was suppose to hunt his prey and his enemies.

Realization that they were enemies __and__ his prey.

He went for one of the humans with the weapons first, his body a blur and his claws tore his throat open before he could blink. He turned to the other one before the first even fell to the ground and tore his head off as he shot blinding, the fire of the weapon grazing his side but causing no real damage.

He turned to the human with the clicker who had started to run for safety. He used the term running generously, it took no time to catch up and pin him into the ground. This man was the one in charge, the one who told the white coats to jab him with lightning, to agitate him until he tore goats into ribbons.

But now he was the goat, underneath his claws and staring at him with wide terrified eyes, the scent of fear reeking off his soft-oh so soft-skin. His heart thumped with excitement he knew wouldn’t come from just any successful hunt.

This was the thrill of revenge.

His former captor was just a few bits of flesh scattered on the ground when he walked away, licking the blood from his chops. With a final glance at the house and that cage he vanished into the woods.

He was free.

And he was just getting started.

 


	2. Barricade City

_Life finds a way_ , as Ian Malcolm said.

Life found a way…to bring dinosaurs back to life.

Life found a way…to have that gift of life fall into so, so many wrong hands.

Life found a way…to turn the creatures into weapons.

And life found a way…to have mankind losing any and all control.

Owen Grady was just a kid when humans brought this upon themselves.

When John Hammond had brought dinosaurs back from existence to turn them into a park attraction. But naturally others wanted to use the dinosaurs for their own purposes, mainly as weapons against enemies. The DNA of the creatures had been stolen right under Hammond’s nose and many different hands managed to seize it. With the power of life in their grasp mankind quickly turned on each other, and, eventually, the dinosaurs were intelligent enough to use that to their advantage and turned on their owners. Eating the hand that once fed them.

At first the world was able to fend them off, but the greedy and stupid had not been scared to breed like crazy. There had been too many scattered in too many places and even the stubborn Hammond had admitted the creatures had grown far more intelligent than he had expected. More intelligent than any other animal, they rivaled humans.

And eventually, in an insultingly easy amount of time, they broke the world. The whole thing reminded Owen of a zombie apocalypse. The government crumbled, cities became empty, supplies became scarce, and so many people died.

That’s why Ian Malcolm, who had been there from the start, had seen the horrors first hand, started up a group, collected survivors who wanted the dinosaurs dead as much as he. Their goal was to be stealthy, to find breeding grounds, to kill them one by one, it was to be a slow progress, but what else could people do when their old lives were torn away from them by fangs and claws?

Well, if you were John Hammond and his band of loyal, __stupid__ , followers you’d be building a reserve, you’d be making plans to coral the dinosaurs there. They wanted to preserve them, keep them safe and contained, because at the end of the day, they were animals who deserved life just like all wild life, never mind this wild life was literally taking over the world.

While Owen had liked dinosaurs as a kid, and at first had been excited when he heard news of Jurassic Park he had very quickly taken Malcolm’s side.

Now, as an adult, he lived in one of the barricaded towns that survivors had build and made home, working as border patrol/scavenger.

Right now he drove a battered jeep that was running dangerously low on gas, and if they weren’t able to find more soon the patrols would have to be back on foot, which was both more dangerous and exhausting.

Owen didn’t drive alone, in the back seat, gun in lap, was both the man in charge of their town and a living legend: Alan Grant.

He and his wife Ellie Sattler were close friends to Malcolm, having survived alongside him in Jurassic Park. They moved to Owen’s barricaded town because it was one of the largest and one of the closest to the Sanctuary.

Owen liked Grant and his wife to an extent, they weren’t bad people but he did have to roll his eyes at the knowledge that despite the fact they were helping eradicate the dinosaurs-they still liked them.  

 They’d sit in the watch tower and ogle the brachiosaurus that they could spot miles away. They witnessed the park fall, they even witnessed a T-Rex slaughter an entire town while the Barricade Cities were being built.

Yet they could still find beauty in these…monsters. And Owen would never understand it.

“So…” Owen began. The two were almost done with the patrol and he was running out of topics. “Some weather, huh?”

He heard Grant snort behind him, the older man keeping his eyes on the thick woodland that surrounded them, the jeep bumped slightly on the rocks of the dirt path. “Winter’s a long way, I can say that much.”

“Yeah, cause all the previous winters were such a big help,” Owen said sarcastically, but lightly. The American winters took out some dinosaurs, especially the colder states, but never enough to put a good sized dent in the ever-breeding population. The dinosaurs got laid more than Owen, and considering he was easily the hottest guy left alive, he felt that both insulting and depressing.  

He hadn’t had sex since Claire, and he doubted he’d ever see Hammond’s number one fan again.

“Besides,” Owen went on, “The best thing about winter was getting girls in cozy wood cabins.” He looked over his shoulder with a teasing smirk, “You ever get Sattler in front of a roaring fire? With a bear-skin rug?”

Grant sent him a look that was somehow both amused and not amused. “Why are you asking? And watch were you’re going.”

“Isn’t it obvious I live vicariously through you?” Owen asked as he turned his eyes back to the road. “Though now that I think about it, Sattler doesn’t seem the log cabin type. You two probably probably went to a science fair or…wherever nerds went to get laid.”

“Owen, I don’t ride with you to talk about my sex life,” Grant reminded him. “I ride with you because I’m the one with the gun.”

“You could always give it to me,” Owen suggested with a tinge of hope in his voice. Malcolm’s people had only managed to get so many guns, and a majority of them went to guarding the Sanctuary (which was much, much larger than any Barricade City) and to the people who actually went out to actively kill dinosaurs. A job Owen would’ve loved to have but was never given.

Grant snorted, “Maybe if I didn’t think you’d ride off into the sunset with it. You can have it when I finally get eaten. Until then, you can use your bow and arrow.” “Yeah,” Owen snorted in turn, “That’s how I’ll take down a T-Rex, shooting it with an arrow like fucking Legolas. You know I-”

“Quiet,” Grant suddenly interrupted, lifting his gun and aiming it toward the trees. “Slow the jeep a bit, not too much.”

The younger man obeyed, his eyes following Grant’s. The forest was thick and dark but he thought he caught the sight of movement, something that looked like the swish of a tail.

“It’s small,” Grant breathed, never taking his eyes away.

“Predator?” Owen asked.

“Most likely. Slow down a little more.”

Owen did so and without warning Grant shot a round into the trees, making Owen jump.

“What the hell,” he spat, more annoyed that it caught him off guard.

But then he heard a pained shriek and something dashing deeper into the woods.

“Stay here, Owen!” Grant ordered as he leaped off the jeep and hurried after the creature.

“Screw you!” Owen called out, bringing the car to a stop. He followed Grant with his bow in hand and knife strapped to his hip.

There was another round of fire and another furious screech. His mind ran through his knowledge of dinosaurs, trying to figure out if he could guess which one it was by sound alone.

But before he could make a guess Grant’s body fell before him, making Owen jump back so quickly he fell to the leaf-strewn ground.

A Dilophosaurus was on top of Grant, trying to go for his throat but the man had used his gun as a shield, the dinosaur’s teeth scrapping against the metal now wet with saliva and venom. Grant let out a growl of pain as its claws slashes his shirt. Fueled with adrenaline and fear and with no time to use the bow, Owen pulled his knife out and lunged for the dinosaur, making a clear stab right to the neck. The Dilophosaurus make a small gasping noise, its eyes now on Owen, he could swear it looked both scared and furious. Then its gaze went blank and it fell across Grant, its body twitching as Owen dragged it off the man.

“How you feeling?” he asked, grabbing the man’s arm and lifting him up.

There was red scratches through the cuts on his shirt. To his relief none of the scratches were bleeding too bad.

“I’ll be fine,” he reassured, examining his clothes, “But I’m running out of shirts.”

Owen chuckled as he walked by the car to grab the matches.

They always burned the dinosaurs they killed near the barricade, no one wanted the rotting carcasses to attract scavengers. At least not the scaly kind.

After setting the Dilophosaurus ablaze he and Grant only spent a few short moments watching the body burn before returning to the jeep. It was getting dark and Grant needed to be checked over.

 

.

 

Thirty minutes later the two men were safely inside the Barricade City and Ellie had looked over her husband with both annoyance and concern. Owen only stayed long enough to make sure the older man would be fine before he returned to his house.

Well, house was a generous word, it was a shack. And opening the door he saw the small “house” was already occupied.

“Franklin, get out.”

The twenty year old was sitting at Owen’s desk, looking over the his blueprints of the city and furiously scribbling notes on a notepad.

“I needed to use your blueprints,” Franklin offered an apologetic but insincere smile before returning to the papers in front of him. “Only you and a couple of other people got blueprints.”

“Then go ask one of __them__ if you can break into their shack. Where’s my guard dog?”

At those words Franklin winced and pointed to a ringed tail under Owen’s bed. The man stepped forward and kicked the frame, making the boy jump and the creature growl.

“Hey, Rocket! Get out here and do your job you useless trash panda!”

A raccoon’s snarling face poked out from under the bed, hissed once, and dove back into the shadows. But not before Owen saw the wrinkly plastic wrapped between his paws.

 “You gave him one of my twinkies, you dick,” Owen snapped at Franklin, hurrying to the mini-fridge that was his prized possession. He tore the door open and was relieved to see that at least one twinkie remained. Those had been such a lucky find and he wanted to savor it.

“It was trying to crawl into my lap and was growling,” Franklin informed with a comical swallow. “I threw it a twinkie in self-defense. I’m pretty sure your raccoon either has rabies or is about to have rabies.”

Owen slammed the fridge shut, “If he had rabies then he would’ve bit your foot off when you tried to trespass.” Despite his harsh words his tone didn’t carry the threat into any sort of promise. So with a defeated sigh he walked over to Franklin, looking over his shoulder at his notes.

“The west wall needs to be reinforced?” Owen asked after skimming the notepad.

“It’s the thinnest of the walls,” Franklin explained, “I was looking over it today and…the walls are put together with random things we found int the area, I still half expect a bad storm to knock a wall down. I really do think there are cracks in the west wall a dinosaur could get through.

“If one does then we’ll shoot it,” Owen reassured Franklin as he made a mental note to check the west wall over tomorrow.

Franklin had once liked dinosaurs and was Claire’s friend before his. He had been apart of Hammond’s crowd despite the fact he was afraid of every animal on earth. But then he was nearly killed in a stampede of stegosaurus and the trama of the close call had him not wanting to be anywhere near any sort of dinosaur. The last favor Claire asked of Owen was to look out for the kid when Grant and Ellie took him into their city.

And despite the fact he was constantly breaking and entering, Owen admitted he was fond of Franklin, it was nice having a friend that wasn’t trying to bite his ankles.

Speaking of Rocket, the raccoon had reappeared, jumping onto Owen’s bed and curling up into a corner. It had taken a long time to get it through the grubby creature’s thick skull that it couldn’t lie in the center of the bed or on his pillow.

“Bed time,” he told Franklin, ruffling his hair just to aggravate him. “Get your shit and get out.”

“Goodnight to you to, Owen,” Franklin said as he walked out of the shack. Owen waved goodbye and waited until Franklin walked into his own shack a few yards away. It was becoming darker and lanterns and candles around the city were already lit.

Owen walked inside, kicked off his boot and laid on his back with a grunt of relief. He could always use more sleep. Still, the thought of a dinosaur slipping through the cracks of the Barricade City kept him up longer than he cared for.

 

.

 

She had been studying the pack of humans that lived beyond the walls of human scraps. They were dangerous, she knew, having witnessed creatures like herself getting killed, either by being shot or caught in traps, the

humans liked to burn the bodies.

Logically she should’ve left a long time ago, but she stayed for two reasons.

One was because she would catch the whiff of livestock beyond their walls. Eating humans had too many consequences, but animals that walked on four legs and were covered in fur, they were fair game. And her mouth watered at the thought of fair game.

The second reason was something she liked to deny. She was envious of the humans. They had a pack. They weren’t alone. Not like her.

Her sisters and pack-mates had been killed by __her__  a long time ago, but the ache of grief and loneliness still weigh heavy on her. And she was resentful that this human pack was still alive when her sisters were far more equipped to survive.

Well, if __she__ or __him__  ever find this place, the humans would be no better off than her sisters. So it best she take advantage while she still could.

She had been studying their walls in the dead of night after she had caught scent of their livestock. One of the walls wasn’t as well built as the rest and it was that one she focused on, sniffing for openings, and even moving a few pieces, quietly and carefully, she couldn’t alert the humans, and she couldn’t let the wall tumble down and crush her.

Days of patience and soothing her hunger with scrawny squirrels and she finally was rewarded: a gap was made. She would crawl through one of the inventions that humans used to ride. It would’ve been mildly dangerous if it was still moving. But when it was still she was quite harmless.

Practically drooling she waited until the sun was completely gone before she slipped through the trees, silent as death. Once she was at the wall she kept a close eye on the humans who stood on the tours, occasionally flashing beams of light around. More than once they had almost spotted here.

But tonight there weren’t any beams of light and she reached her gape, crawling through she tensed as she felt the object creak under her weight but other than that she passed through with ease.

Inside the walls were empty, if not for the squares that glowed with light, she knew humans lived in those, so she would ignore them.

She kept to the shadows, catching the sight of patrolling humans every now and then. They carried the strange, stick weapons that shot fire and it could kill her with only a few simple hits. She would stay as still as stone until they were out of her sight. She wasn’t here to get caught, she was here to eat and leave.

She sucked in a breath and could practically taste animal flesh. And after what felt like centuries she reached a fenced area where a small cluster of animals either stood or slept, all of them silent.

Her eyes narrowed on the nearest one, covered in thick white wool, sheep had been one of the first things she tasted when she and her sisters escaped. She would enjoy this.

Her chosen prey was away from the rest of the livestock and they were all downwind of here. Good. She could kill it and drag it away without alerting the others. Going under the fence she kept the sheep’s back to her, tip-toeing toward it, the only noise she made was her breath and that could be mistaken for wind.

She grabbed its sides with her impressive claws and her jaws were around its neck before it could bleat. The taste of blood reached her tongue and it took all her willpower not to let out a growl of triumph. Instead she dragged the now limp body out of the fence, and back into the shadows.

She knew it would be best to not eat until she was safely back outside. But one bite wouldn’t hurt.

But as soon as the meat slid down her throat hunger overtook her and she tore into the carcass with reckless abandon. It tasted amazing, she felt stronger already. However her meal was cut short when a scream split the air, making her head shoot up.

Several feet away was a human, its eyes directly on her and full of terror.

It opened its mouth again: “ _ _RAPTOR__!”

 

 

 

 

 


	3. A Clash of Beasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow It took way too long to get this updated considering I had like 80% of this chapter done and then just...stopped.

Owen was up and out of his bed before he even registered that it was a scream that had woken me up. Grabbing the hunter’s knife in his desk drawer he bolted outside, leaving Rocket growling in the shack.

The sounds of shouts and panic were already around him, and slamming the shack door closed to keep Rocket inside, Owen knew what the cause of it was. But that didn’t stop the jolt of shock and terror as suddenly a velociraptor galloped out of the shadows, passing him with a disinterested glance and blood on its mouth, before making its way to the west wall.

 _ _Franklin was right__ , was Owen’s last thought before he raced after the dinosaur. He couldn’t let it escape, not if it had killed one of the people who lived in Barricade City. He only had a knife and logically he didn’t stand a chance.

But logic didn’t win against the combined forces of adrenaline, terror, hate, and trauma.

The raptor had reached the west wall where it was struggling through a door-less car, apparently having gotten stuck. Weapon at the ready Owen didn’t think or hesitate before he jumped onto her back. His hope had been to stab the raptor in the gut, but that hope immediately got smashed along with himself when the raptor, quick as a blink, fell onto her back, crushing him under her weight in the process.

The force drove the breath out of his body, the raptor flicked his knife with its tail, sending the weapon across the ground and out of reach. It then pinned its claws against his chest, just pricking the skin as it growled in his face. Unfortunately for both of them Owen still had his adrenaline going and now it was laced with very serious panic so he did the first thing that came to mind: which was, apparently, punch a raptor in the face.

The dinosaur released him and took a step back, shaking its head and looking dumbfounded as if it couldn’t wrap its brain around the fact Owen had just punched it with his bare hand. To be fair, neither could he.

Then the sound of gunfire ripped through the air and the raptor ducked through the car and out into the forest. Owen grabbed his knife and made to follow the dinosaur when suddenly he was knocked back to the ground.

“Grant!” he shouted, elbowing him off him. “It’s getting away!”

He had never seen Alan Grant look so furious, “And what were you going to do? Catch up and stab it to death with a knife? What is wrong with you Owen it could’ve killed you!”

He scowled, “It already __did__ kill someone I heard the-”

“It killed a sheep,” Grant snapped. “It must’ve smelled our livestock and found a way in.”

Ellie appeared, coming to stand at her husband’s side. “We’re all lucky it left without hurting anyone.”

Grant snorted, “The fact Owen’s not going to be shit out by a raptor is a damned miracle.”

Without a word Owen stomped away, Grant and the rest of the men who had shown up could fix the hole in the wall on their own. He knew what he had done wasn’t wise or safe but a stubborn part of him refused to accept that he deserved Grant’s fury, even if he knew it stemmed from legitimate concern. But that wasn’t important, the important thing was that that raptor was still out there, and was still very much a threat.

 

.

 

She growled low in her throat as she digged up a nest for herself. Shock and anger still making her blood boil.

That human male, he had actually struck her! And not even with a human weapon!

She had been impressed, she grudgingly admitted to herself. It took courage for such a soft, fleshy creature to hit her like that, even when he had no fangs or claws to speak of. Though she did know he had tried to stab her when he jumped on her back, still getting that strange tooth-like object out of his grasp hadn’t deterred him. Brave. Stupid. But brave.

As she curled into her makeshift nest, hidden by bramble bushes, she curled her tail over her nose and thought how the night could’ve gone differently.

She could’ve been smart and not let her hunger overtake her sense. If she had done that perhaps she could’ve escaped and had a feast tonight, leaving the humans unaware and allowing her to slip back in tomorrow to get another meal.  

But instead she was reckless and now the humans would cover up that gap in their wall and be extra vigilant. She would have to move on and find better hunting grounds. However, as she closed her eyes she caught a heavy, greasy scent, a fellow predator, but not one like her.

 

.

 

The next day it was decided that a supply run was needed. Both for items to reinforce their wall and gas for the jeeps.

The break-in had made the city paranoid, the kids who usually spent the day running around were now inside under the watchful eyes of their mothers. Despite the fact there was now 24/7 watch on the hole the raptor had used, fear was still rank in the city. Whispers filled the air, people having doubts about how safe they were under Grant’s lead, some suggesting that they move to the Sanctuary. But unless they wanted to walk the miles it would take to reach Malcolm’s place they would have to wait until gas was found.

Owen grabbed his backpack, horribly light with only a small first aid kit, a couple strips of jerky, and a bottle of water. His knife strapped to his belt and his bow around his shoulders. He would’ve love to take a gun but he knew he was lucky that Grant was letting him out on the supply run. He would take Franklin along (Grant knew Owen wouldn’t do anything dangerous if he was watching out for him) for a drive to find nearby stores and houses for supplies. Grant and a couple of others would take a jeep to a nearby junkyard to (hopefully) siphon some gas.

“Please for the love of God don’t go far,” Ellie had told Owen and Franklin as they got into the jeep, the younger man looking petrified about the trip. “If the junkyard is empty we can’t waste any gas. Also Grant wanted me to pass this on: Don’t stab dinosaurs that can tear your face off.”

 Owen rolled his eyes at that but Ellie offered him a sympathetic smile, “I know he doesn’t act like it, but Grant cares about you Owen. He doesn’t want to see you get killed.”

He only nodded and wished Ellie goodbye before he drove out of the city, the entrance being closed shut behind him.

Outside Owen found a bumpy path, less worn than others, that would hopefully lead to something they could bring home.

But he would admit the road was almost too bumpy for himself, twice he had to grab Franklin’s arm to keep from from flying out of the jeep. But to the kid’s credit he wasn’t complaining, instead his bespectacled eyes were staying on their surroundings, no doubt keeping watch to see if that raptor was still around, it or any other dinosaur.

 “Did you actually punch it?” Franklin asked, having wisely stayed indoors last night and only got all the information this morning.

“Yeah,” Owen answered, “Don’t worry, I didn’t give it a black eye.”

“I’m more surprised it didn’t scratch your eyes out,” Franklin brought up what Owen was thinking. “I mean…it __was__ a predator that was getting shot at. You think it would’ve taken out at least a few people, including you.”

Owen kept his eyes ahead and a hand on the road as he answered, “You gotta remember that Hammond and his mad scientists made the dinosaurs smarter than regular animals. And then more people figured out how he did it and they thought: why not make them even __smarter__? You know a

bunch of scaly assassins basically. Ian Malcolm tried t

o tell them that the dinosaurs would be too smart to be kept under control. No one listened and here we are. So to answer your question, that raptor probably realized it didn’t stand a chance against bullets.”

Franklin frowned, “But it didn’t kill you either and you didn’t have any weapons.”

“Not true, I had a knife,” Owen said.

“Why didn’t you use it?’

“It knocked it out of my hand.”

“And then you punched it.

“And then I punched it.”

If Franklin wanted to say more he didn’t as the bumpy, dirt road turned into asphalt as the two men found an old, man-made road, cracked here and there from lack of maintenance. The sight gave Owen a sense of nostalgia, he rarely saw proof that humans once were on top. He could remember riding in the back seat of his dad’s car, trying to count the yellow lines as they whizzed by, hardly able to wait until he got to drive his own car.

 

A shape in the distance distracted him from his thoughts, driving closer he saw it was an abandoned gas station with a garage connected to it, Owen and Franklin exchanged a delighted look before parking the jeep near. He walked in first, Franklin his shadow. Inside the gas station was trashed, many of the shelves empty, having already been ransacked. Still the two men split up to try and find any supplies, Franklin looking under the knocked down shelves for any food while Owen sneaked into the back, planning on making his way to the garage that was closed from the outside.

The back room was full of rubbish, most of it empty cans and bags and boxes of what the gas station used to sell, and to his surprise, the back wall had a large hole through it. A larger dinosaur must’ve crashed into it for what he could only guess. Maybe some ankylosaurus got into a fight.

Owen spent a few minutes looking through the room, finding a couple of water bottles and chip bags that hadn’t been open, he made a small pile of on top of one the boxes to collect later. By the time he cleared the room he didn’t have much, but it was better than nothing.

He was just about to head through the door that led to the garage to find some gasoline, when he heard the sound of something heavy crashing through the trees just outside. Owen stared through the giant gap in the wall, toward the foliage where the sound of growling and stomping was coming closer and closer.

 

.

 

She hadn’t been able to get sleep last night, not when a large grizzly had suddenly stood above her. It had slammed its paws on her ribs, knocking the breath from her, before she could react. And when she did she clawed at its thick legs, her claws barely getting through its thick fur before she jumped up and ran. She was too weak to fight such a large predator without sustaining serious wounds. And she would not survive serious wounds.  

She had spent the rest of her night hiding as the bear kept up with her, she had tried to figure out why it was so determined to catch her, until at one, point, she had caught sight of its ribs even through its thick pelt. The bear was starving more than she was and so desperate for any kind of meat. There simply wasn’t prey in these parts.

It followed her into day break, she was hoping it would eventually tire but she couldn’t waste her energy on running, the hulking beast was faster than it looked.

And then she noticed a human-made shelter with a gap in the walls.

The bear was larger, it would have a harder time moving around in enclosed spaces. She on the other hand…  

She jumped into the building only to see she wasn’t alone. A human was already there, jumping back and letting out a startled yell when she nearly crashed into him.

 _ _YOU!__  What were the odds the foolish creature from last night would be here. Did he stalk her? No, he would’ve been more prepared than this.

This being him throwing a couple of empty boxes in front of him as he fell onto the cold floor, scrambling for a weapon at his hip. She curled her lip in distaste, she could rip his throat out with ease right now. He looked to have too much muscle to be appetizing, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. But lucky for this dumb human she was occupied at the moment.

The bear barged into the room with a starving roar, lifting itself to its feet, tall enough its head knocked into the ceiling. She had whirled around immediately, claws scraping against its thick fur as she kept her feet moving, dodging its massive paws. She saw the human staring at the brawl from the corner of her eye, but that half a second of a distraction was all the bear needed. Claws stabbed into her stomach as it pushed her into the wall, slamming her body into the wall, stunning her.

She stared up at the bear as it loomed over her, strings of saliva falling from its jaws. This was how she would die, she would’ve preferred to put up a better fight.

But before the bear could open its jaws there was a scream: “HEY!” Her eyes moved to the human who had stood up, looking like he had immediately regretted his decision to be noticed. He held the same weapon from last night and something metal and cylinder in his hand.

The bear didn’t look interested in him, turning back to her right before the human threw the piece of metal at its head, whacking it in the ear. She was pretty sure it hadn’t harmed the bear, but it definitely make it angry.

And she used to that advantage. Shooting her jaws up as the bear turned its head, getting her teeth into its neck and biting down into the thick meat as deep as she could. The bear let out a roar of pain and thrashed around, but the minute blood had sang on her tongue she found the strength to hold on and tear into its flesh. Ripping a large chunk out she dropped to the ground as the bear stood on shaking legs, gasping as blood pooled onto the floor, until it finally collapsed.

With the greatest relief she fell down as well, dizzy from the fight and the claw-marks on her belly. She looked up at the human who was watching her with a strange expression, there was fear of course, but there was something else as well. She waited for him to try and attack her next, she didn’t fear him.

 But instead the strange human turned around and walked out of the room. Confused, tired, and hungry, she crawled over to the bear’s body and dug in.

 

.

 

Owen was nearly knocked in the head with his bow when he walked into the front of the store. Franklin now held his bow and arrows, arms trembling. “You’re alive!”

“Of course I’m alive,” Owen said, grabbing his weapons from his friend.

“I heard what sounded like something getting torn to pieces and I hurried and grabbed your bow and arrows. And on the way I realized how screwed we were if whatever was in there was hungry. Guns are so much nicer than pointy sticks.”

Owen snorted, “Please tell Grant that.” ”So, uh…” Franklin was still on edge, he looked over Owen’s shoulder. “What was it?”

“A movie,” the lie fell off Owen’s tongue far too easily. “Yeah someone left a TV in there and I didn’t realized how loud would it be.

“Owen, there’s no elecricity for TV.”

“Did I say TV? I meant a portable DVD player that still had juice in it.”

Franklin rolled his eyes, “Look if you found something you want to keep secret then that’s fine. I trust that it won’t come back to bite us in the ass.”

“I’m sure it won’t bite us __there__ ,” Owen smiled awkwardly. “You know what let’s just-let’s just get outta here, yeah?”

Owen wanted to say to himself: “I have no idea why I’m letting that raptor live.” But that was a lie. He knew why. When it looked up at that bear, knowing it would die, there was fear in its eyes. And that fear had been all too familiar to Owen and for that vital moment he hadn’t seen a blood-thirsty monster. He had seen himself.  


End file.
